Training Wheels
by SereneCalamity
Summary: Emma was still uncertain when it came to Neal. SwanFire. OneShot.


_These two aren't my OTP for this show, but I still think that they're absolutely fucking adorable. And I absolutely loved Neal :( Anyway, I was inspired to write this song by_ Training Wheels _by Melanie Martinez. It's adorable, and you should definitely listen to it._

 _Disclaimer: I do not own the song or the characters, only the plot and any mistakes._

 _Letting go, letting go_  
 _Telling you things you already know_  
 _I explode, I explode_  
 _Asking you where you want us to go_  
 _You've been riding two wheelers all your life_  
 _It's not like I'm asking to be your wife_  
 _Wanna make you mine, but that's hard to say_  
 _Is this coming off in a cheesy way?_

 _I love everything you do_  
 _When you call me fucking dumb for the stupid shit I do_  
 _Wanna ride my bike with you_  
 _Fully undressed, no training wheels left for you_  
 _I'll pull them off for you_

Emma Swan wasn't used to this feeling.

She was used to being completely independent, and also completely alone.

But with Neal Cassidy, she relied on him and he was always with her.

She kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for him to get tired of her and to leave her behind. She had practiced the face she was going to need to plaster on, and the off-handed attitude she was going to need to front when it happened, but it never did. Sometimes Emma wondered what the hell he saw in her, but it's not like she could ever ask that question, because then she would be admitting out loud to him that she actually cared about what he thought, and he was more than just a temporary companion.

And now here they were, six months into this weird partnership that they had, and she couldn't help the fact that this man had wormed his way into her heart. He was adorably scruffy, with a sex lopsided smirk and managed to find the best in every bad situation that they found themselves in.

She had come to rely on it.

And the way he looked at her with a raised eyebrow when she said something that had an accidentally dirty innuendo. She always rolled her eyes at him and called him childish, but more recently, the way he gave her those pointed, almost heated looks, made her feel a little flustered.

They had never really talked about their histories, and they never asked each other. But clearly his background was a little bumpy, just like hers. Both of them were in their early twenties, attractive, and smart. Despite being dealt a good hand, they could both have gotten themselves good jobs and a good relationship, but they chose not to trust people and get involved.

Which is how they both ended up in a little yellow Bug, pulling small time cons and then moving onto the next town. They never really had any direction, and sometimes they drove straight through a town and kept going, and then realized that they were too far away from the next one to reach there before nightfall. So they would find an abandoned farm, or a cabin, or when worst came to worst, they would fall asleep in the car, the front seats tipped all the way back.

Right back when they had first started their...Partnership, they had slept as far as they could from each other. Their sleep was broken, always nervous and looking over at each other to make sure they weren't being conned. But after a few months...Emma had never slept better in her whole life.

Last night, they had slept in a tiny, grimy hotel room. It only cost fifty bucks for the room, and they were happy to part with the money because it meant that they could have a hot shower and get properly scrubbed down. There was only one bed, but even though it was a double, Neal told her that she could take the bed. Despite the dirty jokes and the way he teased her, he had never made a move on her, and he was always a gentleman when they stayed in a single bedroom apartment. He gave her the bed, he turned around when she changed, and he always let her shower first.

But last night had been cold. Emma had been warm on the bed, which was close to the door and had three thick blankets on it, but she had woken up in the middle of the night and looked over at Neal. He had been shivering under the one spare blanket that there was, so cold that his teeth were chattering.

"Neal," she said quietly. For a moment, he didn't move. But then he rolled over and looked at her, attempting to give her a smile.

"Yeah, Swan?" He murmured. She didn't reply, simply shuffled over in the bed and picked up the edge of the blankets, a silent invitation to join her. He stared at her for a long few moments, before getting up and slowly walking across the creaky floorboards to join her. He took the blankets from her and Emma rolled over, her whole body feeling a few degrees warmer than it had before as she felt the bed dip as he joined her. For a moment, the pair of them had laid there stiffly.

Then Neal rolled over, the narrow bed not quite big enough to keep them completely separate as he tucked his legs up a little bit, his knees touching the back of her thighs ever so slightly.

Emma hadn't minded.

She didn't move.

Which brought them to know, as Emma was waking up, the sun streaming through the thin curtains. Through the night, they had shuffled together, her body tucking into the curve that his had created, and his arm thrown over her waist, holding her against him. It was the closest that they had ever been, and while Emma usually ran from situations like this, she felt comfortable. She felt warm. She didn't want this to end.

And she knew that he didn't either, because she heard the exact moment that his breathing changed, indicating that he had woken up, and he didn't move an inch either. In fact, if Emma's stomach hadn't let out an embarrassingly loud grumble, they might have stayed there all day. Neal laughed in her ear, and she felt her cheeks redden as his chest vibrated against her back.

"We should probably get a move on," he whispered.

"Yeah," Emma nodded. It was a few minutes more before either of them moved, but when they did, and they met one anothers eyes for the first time, they both knew that something was different. Something had changed.

It was something that Emma didn't know how to handle, but she could take it slow. She was willing to take her training wheels off and see how it went with him.

The warm, lop sided smile he gave her as he pulled on his hoodie and handed her red leather jacket only made her more confident in her decision.

 _Please let me know what you think! :)_


End file.
